34 Most Common SoapUI Interview Questions and Answers

In this article, we have provided the most frequently asked and common SoapUI interview questions and answers for the benefit of our readers. Let’s get started.

It’s always tricky to write an interview Q&A article because the list of questions that we provide is never going to be all-inclusive and also, interviews in real time aren’t exactly in the Q&A format.

We recommend learning the SoapUI concepts from this comprehensive tutorial series that includes detailed examples.

Top 21 SoapUI Interview Questions

In an interview, most questions would be a response to what you say your experience has been.

For example: If you say that you have been working on SoapUI for 5 years now and have tested an application both functionally and also ran some load tests, then some of the SoapUI testing interview questions would be:

• What kind of application was that?
• How much of an involvement did you have?
• Were there any challenges?
• Any automation best practices you have implemented?
• What extent of groovy scripting was used?
• What is your approach to maintaining data from data sources?

Answers to these questions are situation/experience based, so there is no one fit-for-all solution.

However, the following are a list of SoapUI Web Services interview questions that are general, your typical “viva voce, aka oral examination” format questions that can come up in an interview when the interviewer is trying to assess your functional and foundational SoapUI knowledge.

34 Common SoapUI Interview Questions and Answers

They could be as below:

Q #1. What are web services?

Ans. Web services are web components that transfer data between client and server. The client sends a web request to the server and the server then responds to the client. The responses and requests are related and different requests evoke the corresponding responses.

Web Service is a web component or software program that can be accessed on the Internet. It is mainly used to communicate with web-based applications through XML messaging concepts. For example, if we want to access a particular location using Google Maps, we can use the corresponding web service URL. For that, we have to pass on the appropriate inputs.

Q #2. What is the primary challenge when testing web services?

Ans. Majority of the functional testing is carried out via the GUI; the biggest challenge of web services is that they do not have a UI.

Q #3. What are the communication channels available for a web service?

In general, web services are combined with the following protocols. They are,

• HTTP / POST
• HTTP / GET
• SOAP

While exposing the web services, these channels will be used for communication with the clients. Here HTTP / POST protocol transfers information between clients in a secure mode. HTTP / GET protocol allows the client to partially view transferred data in the browser’s address bar. SOAP is used for transferring confidential data safely.

Q #4. What are the different components that can be used in the web services?

There are four components that are used in web services. They are,

1. WSDL – Web Service Description Language
2. SOAP – Simple Access Object Protocol
3. UDDI – Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
4. RDF – Resource Description Framework
5. XML – eXtensible Markup Language

Q #5. What are the tools used for testing Web services?

To perform functional testing for web services, we can use the following tools:

• SoapUI
• RESTClient – This is a Firefox plug-in
• JMeter – Specially made for performance testing tools and we can also do functional testing of the web services.

Q #6. What is WSDL?

Ans. WSDL stands for Web Service Description Language and is a document written in XML. It uses XML to define the service layer document which consists of origin of the web service, headers, port types, request and response data. This one can provide information about web methods and web services.

It describes the following:

• Origin of the web service
• Header information
• Port type
• Input and output messages

For more info and examples, check out this article https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/web-services-api-testing-tool-soapui-tutorial-1/

Q #7. What is the role of WSDL documents in web service testing?

Ans. Validating web services is only possible with WSDL document because to configure web services in SoapUI, WSDL document is mandatory. If the WSDL document is not valid, SoapUI will throw an exception immediately.

Q #8. What is UDDI?

Ans. Universal Description, Discovery and Integration – a directory or global repository where all web services can be found. A new Webservice can also be registered through this website. This is also where WSDL detailed definitions are found.

It uses the discovery layer which is used in the web services. UDDI has all the information about the web services in detail. Global web services can be deployed at http://uddi.xml.org/

Q #9. What is SOAP?

Ans. Simple Object access protocol that uses XML to interact with web applications. It uses XML based content to communicate between two client machines across any network

Q #10. What would be the message format for the SOAP protocol?

Generally, all the SOAP-based web services are written by using XML language which uses standard message format that is accepted across the universe. In this format, it is easy to read, identify the errors, avoid interoperability problems etc.

Here’s the sample SOAP message format.

POST /InStock HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost
Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 399
SOAPAction: “http://www.example.com/soap-envelope”

<?xml version=”1.0??>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=”http://www.example.com/soap-envelope”>
<soap:Header>
</soap:Header>
<soap:Body>
<m:TutorialName>SoapUI</m:TutorialName>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Q #11. What are the advantages of SOAP?

Ans. Since its XML based, it is platform and programming language independent. RPC (Remote procedure calls) are sometimes blocked by firewalls and proxy servers – Soap overcomes that.

Q #12. What does a soap document contain?

Ans. Envelope element is the topmost tag which identifies the XML document as a SOAP message. Followed by the Envelope element, you will see the header element that has the header information. The Body element specifies the call and response information. Finally, you have the Fault element which contains errors and status information.

Q #13. What is meant by Protocols and what are the major types that are used in web services?

A protocol is a set of standard rules that help to communicate the hardware devices through the software applications. There are different types of protocols used in the Internet and Intranet applications.

TCP which stands for Transmission Control Protocol. It has rules to exchange messages between two different Internet applications.

Internet Protocol uses the rules for sending and receiving information between two different Internet addresses.

Similarly, HTTP, FTP and DHCP protocols have used a set of rules to transfer data other than Internet applications.

Q #14. What is XML?

Ans. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a mark-up language that is used for storing, sharing and formatting data. In general, an XML document is built by the tags. For more info and examples, check out this article https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/web-services-api-testing-tool-soapui-tutorial-1/

Q #15. SoapUI and SoapUI Pro?

Ans. SoapUI is a web service testing tool and SoapUI Pro is its commercial version. SoapUI can help create functional, secure and load testing test suites. SoapUI Pro does all that with advanced drag and drop, data driven testing, advanced reporting and coverage analysis. Check out this article for more information: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/soapui-tutorial-12-soapui-pro-features/

Q #16. What can we do with the help of SoapUI?

• SoapUI offers to perform automation testing which includes functional testing, load testing and Data Driven testing.
• It also provides in-build reporting tools and export test results log provision
• We assert our services using various types of assertions

Q #17. What hierarchy does SoapUI follow to build a proper testing project?

In a SoapUI project, the following order should be maintained.

• TestSuite – This is a combination of functional tests and logical blocks
• Testcase – This is a group that contains several test steps for specific aspects of the service.
• Teststep – it contains a set of functional tests

Q #18. What is the basic method to automate web services in SoapUI?

Ans.

• Create a project and add the WSDL file
• Add test suites, Test cases and Test cases- in that order
• Include custom programming/validation usage by adding Groovy steps
• Call external data sources if using
• Add assertions if necessary
• Then RUN.

Q #19. What are SoapUI assertions?

Ans. Assertions compare the parts/all of the response message to the expected outcome.

Q #20. What are the major types of assertions available in SoapUI?

Assertions are one of the major features of SoapUI. It offers the following types of assertions.

• Simple contains
• Schema compliance
• Simple not contain
• Soap Faults
• Response SLA
• XPath Match
• XQuery Match
• WS security status
• Script Assertion
• WS- Addressing Request or Response Assertion

Additionally, Equals assertion is introduced in the SoapUI NG Pro version.

Q #21. Explain about XPath Assertion in SoapUI

In SoapUI, XPath assertion is used for asserting the web service response value by specifying the absolute path. If the absolute path is matched with the response value, then the test case or test suite will be considered PASS otherwise it will be notified as FAILED. You can see the results of the assertion at the bottom of the screen where the Assertion tab will have resultant information.

Q #22. What is Data Driven testing?

Data Driven testing means to store our test data which includes input and expected output in an external data source called Excel / Database / XML file. Later, we need to iterate the data source using the respective component. Datasource and Datasource Loop test steps are used to perform data driven testing in SoapUI.

Q #23. What are the different types of assertions used in SoapUI?

Ans. The following are the different types of assertions:

• Contains & Not Contains
• XPath match
• XQuery match
• Schema compliance
• Soap Faults
• Response SLA
• WS security Status
• Script Assertion
• WS – Addressing Request or Response Assertion

Q #24. How can assertions be added to SoapUI?

Ans. Receive a response to a request as you would normally follow the steps given below:

• Create a project and add WSDL
• Add Test suite, Test case and Test steps
• Run the request

To add assertions:
– Click on the Add Assertions at the top of log tabs.
– Configure the assertions as per the type and data required.

For more info and examples, check out this article: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/soapui-tutorial-5-soapui-assertions/

Q #25. What is a Groovy script and where can it be used?

Ans. Groovy is a scripting language which internally includes all the Java libraries – it helps us to customize and add custom validations to SoapUI tests

Q #26. Can the custom code be added to SoapUI? If yes, what can be added?

Ans. Yes – Groovy and Javascript steps.

Q #27. How do you group tests?

Ans. The basic test suite is a way for us to group tests in SoapUI. When you need a different set of tests, you just have to create a new test suite and create tests as required under it as test cases.

Q #28. How do I save the responses received?

Ans. The response values can be saved by clicking on the required request and choosing the “Dump file” location in its properties.

Q #29. What properties are available in SoapUI?

There are three levels of properties available in SoapUI. They are:

Custom Properties or Project Level Properties

These properties are added several times based on our needs and can be utilized in any test suite, test cases or test steps that belong to the current project.

Test Suite Level Properties

The tester can add their own properties with relevant information under the test suites. These properties are only available for the corresponding test suite.

Test case Level Properties: If the tester needs to store their test data within the test cases, they can create their own properties inside the test case. This allows these properties to be accessed within the respective test cases.

Q #30. Explain the procedure to parameterize the endpoint in SoapUI?

The parameterizing feature is most important when we automate the test cases and also this is the beginning of the test step creation process. Let us have a look into this.

1. Create a project that has endpoint information
2. If necessary, change the endpoint and assign the property through the property expansion test step
3. Make sure the requested information is available in the given endpoint address
4. During the execution time, the property will hold the test value. Providing a different input value to the property is easy to do through the IDE.

Q #31. What are the major places that Groovy Script Teststep used?

For Soap UI, we can use Groovy Script in the following two places:

• Groovy Script Teststep under the test case
• Script Assertion Test Step

Q #32. Soap vs REST?

Ans.

• SOAP is a protocol and REST is architecture. This allows us to send SOAP envelopes to REST-based applications.
• REST supports different message formats but SOAP permits XML only.
• REST services are faster and easier to handle.
• SOAP is tied to SMTP and HTTP protocols whereas REST relies on HTTP only.
• SOAP is a more secure and structured format.
• REST does not depend on any specific standards as it supports various messaging formats like JSON, CSV and XML.
• SOAP web services allow us to build the client with RESTful services.
• SOAP was introduced for distributed computing.
• After REST’s entry, it accommodated the web by its performance and scalability as it is a lightweight component.
• REST is stateless whereas SOAP is a stateful specification.
• REST uses Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and it has methods like GET, PUT, POST and DELETE to expose their resources.
• SOAP uses named operations and interfaces to achieve its business logic.

Check out this article for more information: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/soapui-tutorial-13-soap-vs-rest-services/

Q #33. What is RDF?

Ans. Resource Description Framework – RDF contains descriptions of web resources such as title, author, content, and copyright information. It is written using XML. For more info and examples, check out this article https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/web-services-api-testing-tool-soapui-tutorial-1/

Q #34. What can data sources be used in SoapUI?

Ans.

• Excel Files
• CSV Files
• ODBC Sources
• SQL / ADO Objects

Conclusion

A few typical SoapUI based questions are given in the article above. However, please do bear in mind that the Q&A format is really very rare. Interviewers are more interested in learning about your experiences and expertise rather than the ability to answer a few trivia based questions.

As always, we hope that this endeavour of ours was of help to you.

Please post questions in the comments section below if you have any and we might do a follow-up article to address them.

Please also share your experiences below. We would love to hear from you.